Plan and deploy

Plan is a dry-run. It never writes Git files or EVE. Omitted direction is to_eve (apply local desired state to the managed lab).

Deploy creates the managed lab the first time. If the managed lab already exists, the IDE asks before replace.

Reconcile applies a plan. to_eve mutates EVE. Do not use Deploy against an IMPORT source lab.

Typical CREATE flow

  1. Validate.
  2. Plan (optional but recommended).
  3. Deploy the first time.
  4. Later edits: Plan then Reconcile.
  5. Start nodes if you want them running.
  6. Open Lab to see the topology in Simple Browser.

IMPORT / LOAD

  • IMPORT: deploy/reconcile the managed copy only. Never the source.
  • LOAD: no deploy/reconcile/destroy. Lifecycle (start/stop/wipe) and consoles are allowed. Wipe only when you explicitly ask.

Destructive actions

Action What it does Confirmation
Deploy with replace Stop/wipe/delete then recreate the managed lab IDE warning
Reconcile with prune Delete extra live objects on to_eve IDE warning
Wipe Clear node runtime / config so the next boot rereads startup-config IDE warning or Live config apply
Destroy Remove the managed lab IDE warning; never inferred

A chat message is not consent.

When Live config apply is off, reconciling a running lab can wipe runtime config for nodes whose startup-config or selector changed. That is expected: EVE applies startup-config on clean boot.

Next: Pull from EVE if the managed lab should update Git.